Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu’s temples are not monuments. They are workplaces, and the difference shows at half past five in the morning, when Thanjavur’s Brihadeeswarar fills with people who have come to do something rather than see something. We build the Chola circuit slowly — Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Darasuram, and the bronze gallery in Thanjavur’s palace, where the Nataraja casts are the finest in the country. Madurai deserves two nights, one of them for the night ceremony at the Meenakshi temple. Chettinad adds mansions with Burmese teak and Athangudi tiles, and a pepper-heavy cooking that has little to do with coconut. In December, Chennai’s Margazhi season runs several hundred concerts across the city.